Buying into banks a new winner for Odey
Crispin Odey, the London hedge-fund manager who made a fortune from shorting banks ahead of their takeover or nationalisation, looks to have made another one by buying into banks he believes will survive.
Odey, who short-sold Bradford & Bingley and HBOS for several years, turned more bullish of UK banks in February. In his annual report to investors, he said some of the UK clearing banks were now "cheap", and that their "risk/return is wrong".
He particularly favoured Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays as investments but warned that Lloyds would probably need further capital injections.
Bank shares continued to slide in February, costing Odey at least one percentage point on his funds' performance. However, the recent rally has changed all that.
In the past seven weeks, his two favoured picks - Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland - have gained 70% and 67% respectively.
By contrast, Lloyds was up by 37% and HSBC by only 5.5%.
